Signs have pointed to Baker Mayfield starting at quarterback for the Panthers since he arrived with the team in a trade with the Browns and that meant there was a strong possibility that he’d be facing his former team in his first game with the new one.

Barring injury, that prospect went from possibility to inevitability on Monday because the Panthers named Mayfield the winner of his quarterback competition with Sam Darnold. After Mayfield complimented Darnold’s professionalism and called him a “great guy” at a press conference, attention shifted to his opportunity to play against the team that drafted him first overall in 2018.